After Agni, India tests indigenous nuclear-capable missile Prithvi-II

New Delhi, June 16: In a major development, India successfully test-fired the Prithvi-II missile, an indigenously-developed nuclear-capable surface-to-surface missile. The test-firing of the short-range ballistic missile comes as part of the Army’s user trial from a test range off Odisha coast on Wednesday evening.

 

 

This test-firing comes less than 10 days after the Army had conducted a test of its nuclear-capable Agni missile. "A successful training launch of a Short-Range Ballistic Missile, Prithvi-II was carried out on June 15, 2022 at approximately 1930 hrs from the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, Odisha. The missile is a proven system and is capable of striking targets with a very high degree of precision," the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

 

Further, it added, "The user training launch successfully validated all operational and technical parameters of the missile." According to the reports, the entire launch was carried out by the Strategic Force Command (SFC) of the Army. It was monitored by the scientists of the DRDO as part of a training exercise.

 

 

The missile trajectory was tracked by radars, electro-optical tracking systems and telemetry stations by the DRDO along the coast of Odisha. The downrange teams onboard the ship deployed near the designated impact point in the Bay of Bengal monitored the terminal events and splashdown.

 

Notably, Prithvi-II is an indigenously developed surface-to-surface missile, which has a range of around 250 km and can carry one-ton payload. These successful test-firing of several missiles comes at a time when globally there appears to be a revamp of nuclear capabilities.